Doom Patrol #10 Review (Lots of Spoilers)

WARNING: If you have not read Doom Patrol #10 yet, do NOT read this review. As it says in the title this review is more of a personal opinion review and is full of spoilers so if you’re looking for our review that does not contain spoilers please click here.

Credits:

Gerard Way – Writer

Nick Derington – Penciller & Cover Artist

Tom Fowler – Inker

Tamra Bonvillain – Colorist

Todd Klein – Letterer

Jeremy Lambert – Special Thanks

Kyle Smart – Variant Cover Artist

Jamie S. Rich – Editor

Molly Mahan – Editor

Before getting into this I’m going to say straight up, I am new to comics and that is a big reason why I’m doing this. I intend to be completely honest with you. Show you where I’m confused, explain to you what I think, I may be wrong, but that’s the beauty of comics- they are open to interpretation just like any other work of literature you may read.

This issue starts off with the exciting twist of Terry None tap dancing on the roof of a building while the entire town goes berserk. People start turning into meatball-like figures (What is up with G and meat? haha) and a lot of other eccentricities begin to take place.

Meanwhile, Casey is desperate to find Terry and Sam & Vivian Reynolds are frantic to find their son and have enlisted the Doom Patrol to help.

Everything comes to a screeching halt as they all follow Cliff to the tv where they see an old face from years before, Mr. Nobody, and he’s explaining that everyone who ate $#!+ is now faced with the news that an additive in the product is being activated and as it continues to do so, it will break all of reality- just before turning the reporter he’s speaking to into a giant inflatiable panda (sound familiar MCR fans?).

As the Doom Patrol races to help, we shift to a scene where the character who is “withheld due to copyright” but believed to be some form of the character “Hexxalon” is frantically searching for the actress who played his wife in a film about him, Rita Farr. Rita is another familiar name for those familiar with Doom Patrol because she was one of the original members of the Doom Patrol and was seen throughout several runs of the series including that of Grant Morrison.

As the team shows up to face Mr. Nobody we are faced with a big reveal that we probably should have seen coming, Terry None is Mr. Nobody’s daughter and it is her tap dancing that is activating the $#!+ storm. While giving us this big reveal it only takes a couple pages more for us to realize there are a lot more questions to be answered. Casey is still frantically searching for Terry hoping she didn’t do anything wrong. Why? Does Terry know what she’s doing? Did Terry always know and was a part of the plan? Is Casey under some sort of $#!+ spell?

In the midst of this chaos comes my favorite part of this entire issue. Sam and Vivian find Lucius who is out of control, having a blast participating in the chaos alongside Mr. Nobody. Just as he’s about to exact his revenge on Jane for taking his mother away, Vivian swoops in, in quite possibly the most amazing exchange a parent could have with a child and brings her son back from the verge of making a big mistake.

Just as things look like they are going to be ok for Lucius, a mysterious demonic bat looking creature shows up to take Lucius to the ‘Demonscape’ to reclaim his throne (whatever that means). So again, another brilliant play in writing where you get some answers and a lot more questions.

Speaking of more questions, we find them when Casey finds Terry. Immaculate conception of Terry & Casey’s baby(didn’t see that coming), everyone racing to the hospital and the birth of an omniblank are just the start as “withheld due to copyright” tries to stop the birth from happening and issues a retconn plan C (whatever that is) and the crew bust through the blank space into a new location that we are unfamiliar with looking pretty wrecked and thus ending the issue and leaving us with a lot more questions for issue 11.

The thing I loved the most about this issue is that every day we feed our brains and our bodies with $#!+ and how much of it we take in and how we process/digest it is what determines our reality. There’s a saying I love which is “Change your perspective, change your reality.” and I really feel like this is what Gerard is going on here. You are what you eat. If you feed positive things you will be positive. If you feed negative things you will find negative reactions. I think this is a comical and whimsical look at what can happen when we aren’t careful of what we fill our minds (or our bodies) with.

Do we feed our negative emotions or our positive emotions? We saw that explored when Casey met her negative side and we see it again with Lucius in this issue.

I also really love the character of Lucius. I love how his storyline shows the psychological warfare that goes on inside a person who feels completely and utterly alone and unloved. I love how Vivian is quick to notice this and doesn’t allow her son to seek revenge on the person he feels took his family away from him. To him, Jane stole all the love in his life and made him a ‘nobody’.

This whole scene is just brilliant. I love the way Vivian is quick to accept ownership for her own actions and choices to try to save her son. And the fact that Lucius accepts that he doesn’t have to befriend Jane, he just has to not lose himself in revenge to get even with her I find to be very profound and a lesson we could all learn from when faced with how we deal with bad things that happen to us, especially when we feel like others are to blame for our unhappiness.

The writing for Vivian is so absolutely on point I just can’t even begin to describe how it makes me feel, but as I read it, I cried real tears. I had so much empathy for Lucius and maybe even a deep internal desire to have someone notice and so quickly assess the situation and say exactly the right thing when I am in crisis mode. The intelligence in the writing is just so absolutely remarkable. I think everyone can relate to having a time where they were hurt and on a bad path and just wanted someone they love to step in and say the thing that mattered most. It just goes to show that, while we are in control of our choices, just the simplest actions of others, positive or negative, can have a huge impact on us. Well played. Beautifully written. (Shout out to the letterer too. The way all the words are emphasized is done so perfectly and though I’m not sure if Nick or Todd did the artistic Crash scene at the end I have to admit I loved it.)

I really enjoyed Nick’s art in this issue. There’s so much going on and so very much detail that needs to be included in so many panels and he pulls it off like the pro that he is. And his teammate Tamra really knocked the colors home in this one. My favorite panel for color is the one where they are all sat in front of the tv and the glow of the tv is reflecting onto the characters. Tamra is an amazing colorist and you can literally feel the tone of the book just from the color choices. Beautifully done.

This just may be my favorite issue of Doom Patrol yet!

(Sidenote: I did not know what an omniblank was so I tried to google it. In the end, I decided that since omni basically means “all” it means “all blank” but to just google omniblank brings up a song from a pretty cool band I’d never heard of that I then listened to while writing this review)

(Further Sidenote: Since this is my first review I’m going to ask, do you like that I explained out the comic or should I just get to my personal review? I did this layout for people who are possibly new to comics that might not be picking up the scenes as they go along and understanding what’s happening. I hear a lot of people that are new to comics say they are confused with what’s going on when they try to read them so I tried to format this review to also be a companion of sorts for those newer to comics so they can follow along easier. Let me know what you think!)

4 Responses to Doom Patrol #10 Review (Lots of Spoilers)

This was an excellent review. I loved how you added how the characters and actions made you feel. It is better than the boring dry reviews that we get from a somewhat cynical professional comic reviewer. I think those are more for the artists but this is for the fans. Very thorough. Loved it

Very helpful! I like that you’re explaing the comic. I was super confused when I read the issue yesterday. This helps me understand more. (But still confused and scared lol G, what are you doing? What’s with those meatball people…😲)

I’m glad it helped clear up some stuff for you, Trira! If there’s anything specific you are confused about you know you can always message me and I’ll help the best I can. I think we’re supposed to be confused about some stuff. 🙂